Parents of children with dyslexia have been ringing an alarm bell in Wisconsin.
They say school districts often fail to teach children to read. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only one in three Wisconsin fourth graders is a proficient reader.
After years of debate in the Capitol, Gov. Evers and Republican lawmakers agreed on a bill that makes sweeping literacy reforms. Evers signed the so-called “Right to Read Act” last week.
It requires schools to more frequently screen students for reading difficulties, notify parents of issues, and develop personal reading plans. It also incentivizes schools to use phonics-based reading instruction.
Kari Baumann’s son Grady, 14, is one of many students who fell behind in reading. Baumann didn't realize it until Grady was 8.
"We found out that he was below kindergarten level ... and he was going into fourth grade," Baumann recalls. "He didn’t even know all the letters to the alphabet, he didn’t even know how to spell his name."
Whatever Grady’s Door County school was doing to try to help him, it wasn’t working. Baumann moved with her son part-time to Illinois so he could attend a specialized program called Lindamood-Bell.
"It was a cost of $60,000, it cost me, just to get him up to a second-grade reading level," Baumann says.
You hear variations of this story over and over from parents of children with dyslexia. Misty Powers, who lives in Green Bay, says her daughter Brooke's reading struggles were devastating.
"She thought she was stupid and dumb," says Powers. "It really affected her self-esteem. She was in fifth grade probably reading at a first-grade reading level. I had no clue."
Powers and Baumann are leaders in the advocacy group Decoding Dyslexia Wisconsin. They’ve spent countless hours at the state Capitol meeting with legislators and advocating for the state to do more to help struggling readers. Whenever a dyslexia or reading-related bill was up for public hearing, they were in the line to testify.
Decoding Dyslexia found an ally in Rep. Joel Kitchens, a Republican from Sturgeon Bay.
As chair of the Assembly Education Committee, he worked this year with the Department of Public Instruction to draft the Right to Read bill, which was signed last week by Gov. Evers. Evers also committed $50 million in the state budget to support reading reforms.
"I truly consider this to be the most important thing that I’ve ever worked on the Legislature as far as affecting the future of Wisconsin," Kitchens said at a public hearing.
The law is packed with changes. It prohibits schools from using an ineffective reading strategy called "three-cueing" that tells kids to guess at words rather than sounding them out using phonics.
Brain science shows that explicit phonics instruction is key for children to learn to read. The Right to Read Act includes funding for teacher training and curriculum that emphasizes phonics.
Baumann says it’s a necessary change.
"To just be able to see a law come forward that is going to pave the way for all kids to be able to get the help that they want early is exactly what we want," Baumann says. "We just want kids to learn how to read early and not struggle like our kids did."
Kaite Kasubaski is the mother of dyslexic children in Oregon, Wisconsin. She is excited that the new law requires schools to screen students in reading more often and create personal reading plans.
"That is what would have really helped both of my kids," Kasubaski says. "Is being identified as struggling, having a personal reading plan with notification to parents and progress monitoring. And not having to wait until they 'qualify' for special education to get those services."
There is some opposition to the bill, with some education groups saying it takes decision-making power away from teachers and schools.
But other states have already made similar reading reforms — Wisconsin isn’t alone.
The dyslexia moms hope struggling readers won’t be alone either. They say, this legislation is too late to help their children — they had to seek interventions outside of their school districts. But they think countless other students will benefit from the more stringent rules around reading instruction.
_
